Transparency and icephobicity of moth eye-inspired tailored omniphobic surface

ABSTRACT In this work, we presented a facile method to introduce a transparent and anti-icing omniphobic surface fabricated on the glass substrate. The uniform moth eye-inspired structure was generated by the Deep Reactive Ion Etching method and followed by an additional wet etching step to enhance the sharpness of the nanostructure. A hydrophobe compound was assembled on the rough substrate by chemical vapor coating to achieve remarkable liquid-repellent properties. The tensile strength test was conducted using a designed apparatus to evaluate the anti-icing performance of functional surfaces compared to the as-received one. In addition, the optical performance in terms of transmittance and reflectance also was tested and revealed significant optical enhancement owing to the unique design of nanoarrays. The results demonstrated the great potential and proposed design for multifunctional surfaces.